Audio Column by Sukey Howard

Molly Ivins the Terrible That title is meant as a true compliment. Molly Ivins, sharp-eyed, sharp-tongued, smart, and super-savvy, makes another foray into the political fray with Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush, written with Lou Dubose. Ms. Molly, who reads with her best Texan twang, warns us at the get-go that there will be no sex, no drugs, no Siggie Freud....

Drawing on public records and their own on-the-scene observations, Ivins and Dubose contend that George W. Bush's most remarkable achievement as governor of Texas has been his own political advancement. The two political reporters Ivins for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Dubose for the Texas Observer pay scant attention to Bush's alleged drug use and other youthful excesses. Instead, their focus...

Politics, Molly Ivins style: straight, no chaser

It has the subtitle Politics in the Clinton Years. Trouble is, in the week since first arranging to talk with newspaper columnist Molly Ivins about You Got to Dance with Them What Brung You, politics and Clinton both have done a wild 360, and neither Ivins nor anybody else knows if the truck stops here . . . or keeps on spinning.Brash, funny,...